GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1920 



blossom secretes so much nectar, like a tiny 

 spring which, when emptied, will in a cer- 

 tain length of time fill up again. The 

 blossom, I believe, repeatedly fills up until 

 the bloom is nearly ripe. And so it plainly 

 appears that, if not enough bees are kept in 

 a given location, then there is waste on ac- 

 count of a lack of enough bees, to gather 

 it, just as surely as there would be waste and 

 loss in a given field of grass if not enough 

 cattle were turned in to use the growing 

 crop. 



Thirty years ago I held that 100 colonies 

 were all that I dared keep in one place. 

 This belief was erroneous. Had I come to 

 a right understanding at that early time, 

 then all the past years would have been 

 much more profitable to me. I hear some 

 one ask, "What about the poor seasons?" 

 Well, these come rather too often; but I 

 have found these seasons to be poor anyhow, 

 whether there are few colonies or many. To 

 be sure, it takes more feed to supply 300 

 colonies than 100. Yet it has been sur- 

 prising how this larger number of bees get 

 nectar in even a poor season. 



This article is simply meant to help others 

 to study and investigate for themselves, 

 and not to lead any one to increase rashly 

 the number of colonies on a given pasturage. 

 After all is said, it will be safer to keep in- 

 creasing until you find the right number. I 

 know that, for my location, and all the other 

 locations about here, it will pay best to keep 

 at least 300 colonies, and I do not know 

 how many more; and my location is not a 

 very good one, since, in a series of years, 

 it will yield only about 50 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honev and less than half that much 



of comb honey. In my locality the only 

 way that the business can be made into a 

 good money-making proposition is to keep 

 more colonies in one yard and as many yards 

 as one wishes. I think it is a very safe 

 statement to make, that more honey goes to 

 waste in Iowa than is saved, and that some 

 day, thru proper education, waste will be 

 better avoided, as it is in other industries. 



There are now in my location on a strip 

 two miles wide and ten miles long over 800 

 colonies, or enough bees to produce annually 

 40,000 pounds of extracted honey — not a bad 

 income for any one man who will be satis- 

 fied and has a liking for the business. 

 Again, I feel equally certain that 300 colo- 

 nies on the above territory would yield only 

 21,000 pounds. 



In summing up, I wish it to be understood 

 that, whether 300 or 100 colonies are kept 

 in one yard, those bees will, nine times out 

 of ten, have abundance for winter stores; 

 but where there is but little late bloom to 

 supply winter stores a different figuring will 

 be necessary, and a good fall flow is practi- 

 cally rising the hill to the next season. 

 There are locations in my State where fall 

 bloom is much scarcer than here, and in 

 such localities fall feeding would have to 

 be done. For the beekeeper who wishes to 

 increase his numbers in any one locality 

 where the clovers are plentiful and late fall 

 bloom much less in acreage, it will be this 

 scant fall flow that will, after all, measure 

 the real capacity of any one location where 

 conditions are as they are here, unless one 

 wishes to count on a general feeding each 

 fall for winter stores, 



Delmar, la. 



A boy who got $125 for his summer's fun with bees. See page 408. 



